LG Sales Growth Increases By 11%

Country’s largest consumer electronics maker, LG Electronics India, reported 11% sales growth last fiscal year, even as the white goods market grappled with a slowdown in demand post demonetisation. Industry executives cited decentralisation of sales and price cuts in pro ducts like television among the reasons for LG’s performance.

As per latest filings made by the company to the Registrar of Companies, the South Korean major posted sales of Rs 16,132.3 crore in India for the year through March 2017, compared with Rs 14,498.1crore the year before. In contrast, the industry growth rate slipped to 4-5% in fiscal 2016-17 as sales were hit in the months following the demonetisation announcement in November 2016.

With this, LG Electronics returned to a double-digit sales expansion after it slipped to low single-digit growth the year before and posting flat growth for the previous few years. As per two senior industry executives, LG India’s current managing director, Kim Ki Wan, who joined in mid-2015, had made several changes which paid dividends last year.

When contacted, an LG India spokesperson said "company had strengthened its share in the LED TV segment by introducing latest technologies like OLED, while in home appliances it had further improved its market leadership by offering technologies like smart inverter compressor in refrigerators and twin-wash in washing machine. He said during demonetisation, the company had introduced attractive EMI offers, which helped push sales."